Manning has tormented Texans since team's inception

Man behind the hurtin'Peyton Manning is capable of frustrating any NFL defense, but the Texans have seen more than their share of his prodigious performances

DALE ROBERTSON , Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, September 9, 2010

Photo: Brett Coomer, Chronicle

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Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has thrown for 4,421 yards and 37 touchdowns in his career against the Texans.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has thrown for 4,421 yards and 37 touchdowns in his career against the Texans.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Chronicle

Manning has tormented Texans since team's inception

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Long before he became a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback and the Texans' worst scourge, Peyton Manning passed through Houston en route to a recruiting visit in College Station, followed by another in Austin.

He spurned both the Aggies and Longhorns, and in turning down Texas A&M, where Gary Kubiak had just launched his coaching career, the teenage Manning showed he already possessed the kind of smarts that have made him one of the game's best ever.

"Coach R. C. Slocum was there, and Bob Toledo was the offensive coordinator," Manning recalled Wednesday. "Mike Sherman (the current head coach) was there, and that's where I first met coach Kubiak. They had a heck of a staff … and they were talking about how much they were going to throw the ball. They were going to, all of a sudden, air it out at Texas A&M. But I checked the media guide, and they had Rodney Thomas, Greg Hill and Leeland McElroy on the cover — three all-star running backs.

"I felt like I was probably going to be going there and handing off a lot. It didn't sound like the most fun thing to do in world. It was a pretty good recruiting pitch, (but) I didn't bite."

Manning threw the ball well enough and often enough at Tennessee to become the first player taken in the 1998 draft, and he has been under center for the Colts ever since, passing for 366 touchdowns and more than 50,000 yards. For Houston's dismayed football fans, who have seen him prevail in 15 of 16 meetings against the Texans going into Sunday's season opener at Reliant Stadium, it probably feels like most of those have come at the home team's expense.

Taking nothing for granted

Actually, only 37 of the former and 4,421 of the latter have. Still, as he does every year when speaking to the local media, Manning dismissed the notion that he owns the Texans, or that he would ever take his dominance of them for granted.

"They have excellent players all across the board," Manning continued. "They've got two experienced safeties, and they've got some corners who can run."

The Texans also have some corners who, collectively, have made 13 NFL starts, 12 of them by Glover Quin. But Manning wouldn't bite on that either.

"They're good players," he said of Quin, Kareem Jackson, Brice McCain, et al. "All I do is look at them on film and see what I see. I don't take a lot into account about how many years they've been playing. Either the guys can cover and run or they can't. You see them making plays on the ball and making plays in the running game."

The Texans have appeared to have Manning cornered several times, certainly of late. They've held fourth-quarter leads in each of the last four meetings, only to have him personally rally the Colts or watch poker-faced while the Texans tripped over their own two feet.

"I can't speak for what's happened in the past," Manning said. "It's been different players, different teams, all different types of games, home and away. It's a new season, and that's how we're approaching it. I'm sure it will be a tough test."

.500 in playoffs

Manning is 34 now, and this will be his 13th season, as hard as that may be to believe. The pressure on him is dramatically different than what confronts Matt Schaub and the Texans. In one sense, Manning's place in NFL history is secure, but for all the stats and all the regular-season success he has enjoyed - he has led the Colts to seven consecutive AFC South titles - his playoff dossier is lacking.

The great modern quarterbacks with whom he's most frequently compared have all won multiple Super Bowls and own significantly better second-season records than Manning's 9-9. That includes February's 31-17 Super Bowl upset loss to New Orleans, when the Colts got outscored 25-7 in the second half and the game turned on a Manning interception that Tracy Porter ran back for a touchdown.

Fresh beginning

Joe Montana went 16-7 and 4-0 in Super Bowls. Terry Bradshaw was 14-5 and 4-0. Troy Aikman was 11-4 and 3-0. Tom Brady is 14-4 and 3-1. While Manning has won the Big One (beating the Chicago Bears four years ago), he's won just one Big One. His Super Bowl shortfall wasn't a subject he cared to reflect upon Wednesday, but he insisted the weight of big-picture expectations is much more a blessing than a curse.

"That's your job as a professional: to work hard every offseason and try to put yourself in the best possible shape and position to give yourself a chance to win," he said. "People think we have a bull's-eye on us or (that we) have ourselves on a higher pedestal. Well, we talk about being the hunters, of going out and trying to accomplish what we want to accomplish. We feel like our opponents have a bull's-eye on their chests. We don't feel (extra) responsibility or pressure.

"The great thing about the NFL, it's an old cliché , but everybody is 0-0 on opening day. What happened last year, or the year before, is pretty irrelevant. It's about going out and trying to re-establish the kind of team you're going to be this year."